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The king of Bahilistan offers his daughter to the King of Kings, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventh Night
c. 1560
- Medium
- gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Overall: 20.3 x 14 cm (8 x 5 1/2 in.); Painting only: 10.6 x 10 cm (4 3/16 x 3 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The local king was so moved by the gesture of the King of King’s in support of the dervish and by his cleverness at bringing his own head, still attached, that he offered his daughter in marriage to him. The princess, wearing Indian dress, is shown honoring his feet. The male figures wear the Central Asian dress of the Mughals, with a long belted tunic and pants. The King of Kings then allowed her to marry the dervish. A fancy door with geometric patterns is in the background, but it extends all the way down to the front of the floor, which has been tilted up, so that the tile pattern can be seen head-on. These fanciful manipulations of space are a hallmark of local Indian artistic practice.
